CW14: Teaching My 6 Kids About Money

Over the last twelve years I have met with thousands of families who needed to file bankruptcy to deal with their serious debt problems. And for many bankruptcy is truly a needed tool in dealing with troubled finances. But what about after the bankruptcy is over? Do people go back to the hold habits that lead to the bankruptcy, or is there a change?  My numbers show that almost 20% of people who have filed for bankruptcy will file again at some point in their life.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I can do to assist clients who are transitioning out of a successful bankruptcy case and further what I can do to help families avoid bankruptcy in the first place.

Much of my thinking has come from reading the Dave Ramsey library. My personality style is somewhat OCD and I tend to get an idea in my head and run with in a thousand miles per hour. That is how it has been with the Dave Ramsey books – I have read them all in about a three week period. And one of the books that most hit home was Smart Money Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money.

My wife and I have six children ranging in ages of 6 up to 15. As I look back on what money lessons I have been teaching my kids I am realizing they were few and far between. I also realize that over my life my wife and I have made numerous poor decisions when it comes to the way we manage our money – decisions that were not so much made because we were being irresponsible, but because we simply didn’t have the knowledge or life experience to know better.

In hopes of having our children avoid the mistakes that we made my wife and I recently started a new “allowance” program to teach our kids about work, saving, giving, and spending their money.  Our framework is based upon the advice given in Smart Money Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money with a few modifications.

In today’s show I share what changes we are making to the way we give our kids money for the chores they do as well as share an experience I recently had in taking four (4) of my daughters to the store to pick out a “prize” and letting them pay for it on their own. The outcome was surprising to me and gratifying to see that not only do these principles work in real life but can have an immediate impact.

How do you teach your children about money?

Leave Us a Review in iTunes!